The charges include two counts of making false statements in purchasing a firearm and one count of illegally obtaining a firearm while addicted to drugs. Combined, the first son faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
The charges came after a plea deal between prosecutors and Biden’s defense attorneys fell apart in July after Judge Maryellen Noreika questioned aspects of the deal and the two parties couldn’t agree to the breadth of immunity it offered.
That deal would have had Biden plea to two misdemeanor tax charges and complete a probationary period to avoid jail time and a felony charge.
Hunter Biden’s exploits first became public after the contents of a laptop he reportedly abandoned at a repair shop were leaked to the media. Among the trove of files found on the laptop were multiple videos of Hunter in various states of undress, holding a firearm and smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.
US President Joe Biden has frequently taken credit for writing the 1994 Crime Bill which ushered in some of the most draconian federal drug laws in the United States history and encouraged states to do the same.
“Every time [former President] Richard Nixon [...] would say, ‘Law and order,’ the Democratic match or response was, ‘Law and order with justice’ — whatever that meant,” the elder Biden said on the Senate floor in 1994. “And I would say, ‘Lock the S.O.B.s up.’”
No date has been set for Hunter Biden's arraignment on the charges.